Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!usc!jarthur!sif.claremont.edu
From: dhosek@sif.claremont.edu (Hosek, Donald A.)
Newsgroups: comp.fonts
Subject: Re: font.copyrights
Message-ID: <7770@jarthur.Claremont.EDU>
Date: 8 Jul 90 20:50:37 GMT
Sender: news@jarthur.Claremont.EDU
Reply-To: dhosek@sif.claremont.edu
Followup-To: comp.fonts
Organization: Harvey Mudd College
Lines: 41

In article <79250@ccicpg.UUCP>, nf@ccicpg.UUCP (Ned Foboe) writes...
>Whats legal and whats not seems to be pretty well established. I have
>some gray areas for y'all.

>I have a PS printer. I also own a set of Compugraphic outline fonts,
>plus a tool to convert them to type 1 PS fonts, or Amiga (screen) bitmap
>fonts.

>Is it legal for me to distribute the bitmaps that I generate?

This is a gray area; a bitmap can be copyrighted as computer
data, and the program that generates a bitmap can be copyrighted
as a computer program, but the output from that program... under
current law, it would be difficult for somebody to prosecute you
for doing this (and in fact some vendors actually do this sort of
thing), but ATypI, the international association of typographers
does not look kindly on such things and I suspect that if the
Compugraphic outline fonts are copyrighted in Germany, France or
the UK, your bitmaps could not be legally brought into those
countries.

>What about the PS fonts that _I generate_ from the CG outlines? I 
>understand that a copyright is held by CG for their outlines, but
>is the resulting PS program still covered by their copyright ? Yes ?
>No ? Gray area ?

In this case, there is NO gray area. The resulting PS program is
still covered by their copyright. The translation here does not
produce the program's output, but rather creates a derivative
work which is covered under international copyright law (an
appropriate analogy is to consider a translation of a novel; the
translation is still subject to the copyright on the original
work).

-dh

---
Don Hosek                         TeX, LaTeX, and Metafont Consulting and
dhosek@ymir.claremont.edu         production work. Free Estimates.
dhosek@ymir.bitnet                
uunet!jarthur!ymir                Phone: 714-625-0147